Our mission: It’s the story

As the Silicon Valley Business Journal launches into a new era, our newsroom will have a mantra: It’s the story, stupid.

It doesn’t matter whether you read it in the newspaper. Or on your tablet. Or on the Web. Or on your mobile phone.

If we don’t create stories that surprise you, inform you, entertain you and make you more effective at your job, we’re expendable. We get that.

It’s a simple enough concept, but it’s difficult to deliver. It’s easy to get distracted. It’s easy to write a mediocre story.

But without the story, a real, living piece of writing that grabs readers, there are no Web clicks. Without the story, there are no paid subscribers. No advertising. No relevance. No fun.

I tell my reporters that the emotions we aim for are fear and love.

Our readers need to look at every headline we publish and feel either love (because the concept is so inherently delightful) or fear (that they can’t afford to miss out).

Every time we fail, we’ve inched away from fun, relevance, subscribers and clicks.

The reset you’re seeing in the Silicon Valley Business Journal — the new name, the new Web presence, the new tablet version, the new paper design — represent a singular investment by a publishing company, given the state of the industry.

That puts it on our newsroom. If we don’t deliver the story, there won’t be return on that investment.

Our goals as we move forward with a redesigned news operation:

1. Digital sensibility: We’ll apply the same urgent, relevant sensibility to both digital and print.